Arms and the blog

Chris Hedges — the other Christopher H, the rational one, not the mercurial one — has been deploring, among other things, the disarray and near dismemberment of liberal politics. And by “liberal,” he does not mean the Far Left. He does not even mean the Near Left. He means more or less the middle ground, or what would be the middle ground had not the two extremes been hurling bilge and lies at one another all these years.

The middle ground, from where one might be able to see both sides. However, with bilge accumulating at historic rates recently, it is difficult now for any viewer at any point on the spectrum to make sense of what is happening more than a few yards away.

A determined band still makes the effort, to point to the sane and the insane on either side of some arbitrary middle ground.

[DISCLAIMER: As a long-time pseudo-Democrat, I may fairly be accused of standing somewhat closer to the Left than to the Right. I will argue, however, that of late, excesses of the Left — lies, hectoring, and half a dozen assorted -isms — pale beside those of the Right.]

Even now, in the toughest of tough times and despite the headlines about gigantic Defense Department spending cuts, President Obama recently reassured arms-makers (and the rest of us) that the Pentagon budget would, in his words, “still grow, because we have global responsibilities that demand our leadership. In fact, the defense budget will still be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration.” In response, his Republican opponents lambasted him as weak on defense for promising so little. Which tells you just who the winners of the last decade were and who the winners of the next one are likely to be.